Eurovision Rants

What NOT to say to an Eurovision fan

(This media tribute is dedicated to Vlatko Ilievski, the Macedonian representative back in 2011, which passed away on July 6th at the young age of 33. Rest in peace, brother, you will be dearly missed.

This is basically every europal's biggest pet peeves regarding commentaries or allusions from other people online or even in real life. Whether you're european or american, or from anywhere else around the world, if you've a devoted fan of Eurovision, you might relate to this entire thing.)
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Any fandom has its ups and downs.
In this case, there might be a couple few issues which need to be discussed. And really really urgent.

Let's say you're incredibly new to Eurovision - we've all been at one point in life. You might've probably been confused about the entire thing, and you kinda wanted to find out more about it.
...Right?

Well, yes and no. Some people just go online to comment stupid things which aren't basically true, or which are deviating from the whole thing, for the sake of... what?

Some of these comments which are repeated endlessly and which still annoy some members on the fanbase even today.

If you really don't have any idea about something, remain silent rather than comment a ton of bullshit. It's really not that hard.

Back to our topic: I'm just going to count several comments I've seen every so often from people and rant about them a little bit. Be free to agree or disagree with them.

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1.
"Oh, it's like American Idol or X Factor, right?"

To answer this question, it's absolutely nothing like this. Oh, at all.

Under the question of "What's Eurovision?" kind of topic, there's one user trying to explain the best they can about the contest, and there's this question popping up all of a sudden.

American Idol, The Voice, X Factor or any talent show should NOT be associated with Eurovision as a general definition. While these talent shows do contribute often to giving new talents, Eurovision stands out massively because of 2 reasons:
1 - original songs and not covers of other famous songs;
2 - you kinda like have to sing there in the literal meaning, several talent shows have the tendency nowadays to introduce a little bit of autotune in their performances;

So, if you're unaware of Eurovision as a contest, at least don't compare it with American Idol or X Factor. Thank you.

2.
"Eurovision is not even followed/watched by anyone! Why do you even watch it?"

Are you sure about that, buddy?
Because me and the fellow 186 million viewers which followed Eurovision Song Contest 2018 would strongly disagree with you.

Just because you don't like it, it doesn't mean that it isn't followed or watched by absolutely anyone. Therefore, your remark is invalid, so sit down and shut the fuck up.

3.
"Eurovision is all about politics!"

My fellow kebab raging friend, why do you think semi-finals actually exist?

Block-voting and diaspora is not a new thing - it's been going on ever since Eurovision was formed. It's rather impossible to tell a country to say "don't vote for your neighbour". They're not dogs.

The semi-finals weren't only introduced in order to reduce the number of entries in the final, but also to kind-of reduce the level of biased voting towards your neighbours.
Basically, if your neighours don't qualify, you have no choice other than vote for someone else, ain't it?

Eurovision isn't politics revolved, don't worry. In fact, EBU is trying as much as they can to avoid politics in the contest.

4.
"Eurovision is not like it used to be! It got ruined by all these gay acts!"

Eurovision Song Contest rather evolved than downgraded.

Probably the biggest and greatest advantage regarding Eurovision is that the fandom is incredibly open and the contest is amazingly inclusive. If you're straight, gay, trans, non-binary, queer, bisexual, etc. - you're more than welcome to join the party.

In the recent years, the LGBT+ community has been actively part in the fanbase on a large scale, and they're basically part of the family. Just because he/she/they're part of this increasing community, it doesn't mean that we're supposed to reject them.

Eurovision is just all about the music. You're more than welcomed to join the fanbase, whether you're old or new, gay or straight, from Europe or outside Europe. You're not going to be judged.

And speaking of music...

5.
"Eurovision only gives us pop trash or ballads in ENGLISH every single year, we need that rule back!"

Actually, despite the fact that many countries indeed sing in English every so often, the native languages aren't technically shoved aside for a long long while.

Outside Azerbaijan, all the nations which participated in Eurovision sung at least once in their native language. And that says a lot.

Besides, Eurovision artists don't offer only pop and ballads. There's been plenty of musical genres which actually were shown on the Eurovision stage, ranging from jazz to metal and even opera.

Regarding the languages, you might be surprised that we actually even had regional languages or dialects in the contest. So if you see someone saying such stuff, he/she/they're generalising the entire thing.

As much as I adore myself some good old foreign language songs, you can't force the artist to do whatever you want.

~~~

Those are just 5 of what comments I've seen online.

Of course there's many others, but after what people might consider as "what not to say..." type of category, there might be a little bit more too general on Europeans and too harsh on Americans or foreigners which have no idea about Eurovision.

But if you want to know more details regarding Eurovision Song Contest (if you're a new fan, of course), better ask the opinion of an actual fan rather than some ignorant prick or a troll.

Even so, if you want to join the fandom, you're more than welcome. We have glitter, confetti, music, fun and everything else in between. ^^